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COSHOCTON, Ohio — As he drove by, he saw his neighbor down in her driveway, the dog beside her.
Something clearly was wrong. The man stopped to help, and the German shepherd attacked again, its
teeth finding the woman’s neck.

Rachael Honabarger, 35, would not survive her injuries. On Saturday, four days after the
mauling, the mother of two died in Grant Medical Center.

Investigators say they might never know why the family pet attacked.

The dog was euthanized on Friday. It was male, 3 years old, 104 pounds and registered to
Honabarger’s husband of one year, Michael. It tested negative for rabies. Coshocton County Dog
Warden Russell Dreher said he considers the investigation complete and doesn’t plan to pursue
criminal charges.

“A very unfortunate accident,” Dreher said yesterday, weary from the attention the case had
attracted.

Mrs. Honabarger’s family, too, seemed to have reached its limit, angrily chasing away a reporter
who pulled into the driveway at 41900 County Rd. 23 yesterday.

It was there where the neighbor, whom authorities are not identifying, found Mrs. Honabarger
last Tuesday. The man told investigators that he grabbed the dog by its collar and forced it into
its kennel before calling police at about 2:40 p.m. Two other dogs registered to Mr. Honabarger, a
female German shepherd and a border collie, were confined at the time. A young child was inside the
house.

No one seems to have witnessed the first attack.

About 15,000 Ohioans report being bitten by dogs each year, but rarely are their injuries fatal.
From 2000 to 2010, the Ohio Department of Health reports, 11 people succumbed to dog bites. The
most-dangerous animals were horses, which killed 16 people. Bulls killed six.

Dreher said Mr. Honabarger had owned the dog for three years and that, as far as the county
knows, it never had been a problem. The dog warden never had been called to the rural home, which
is uphill from the road, surrounded by trees.

Mrs. Honabarger’s obituary said that she was a homebody who loved caring for her children and
her flowers and her pet cat, Fathead. Memorial donations, it noted, can be sent to a trust fund
established at Chase Bank for her two children.